


No Escape

by KeepCaliforniaDreamin



Category: Breaking Bad, Carmen Sandiego (Cartoon 2019), The Sopranos
Genre: Action/Adventure, Breaking bad - Freeform, Captured, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Die Hard References, Lesbian Relationship, Multi, Psychosis, Revenge, Suspense, The Sopranos - Freeform, Therapy, Thriller, Tony Soprano is alive, carmen sandiego - Freeform, girls in prison
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-18
Updated: 2021-01-18
Packaged: 2021-03-16 13:53:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,877
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28832235
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KeepCaliforniaDreamin/pseuds/KeepCaliforniaDreamin
Summary: Carmen Sandiego retired from crime fighting and lives with her mother at the orphanage. But she still reels with side effects from V.I.l.E.'s brainwashing and while incarcerated, V.I.L.E. has their own plans for revenge. Carmen finds herself locked in the very prison she put them in and they have very unsavory plans for their former student. Her only hope lies in Player's new crime-fighting partner Maddie who along with Carmen's therapist Jennifer Melfi must beat impossible odds to rescue Carmen and escape before being a permanent fixture of V.I.L.E.'s collection. It's a Die Hard story that would make John McClane blush. Takes place AFTER season 4! Spoilers ahead.
Comments: 8
Kudos: 16





	No Escape

**Author's Note:**

> The themes explored in this first chapter are: the repetitiveness of regular life as many of the characters struggle with basic day-to-day living after Carmen took V.I.L.E. down. Everyone has difficulty escaping their former lives and emotions whether they want to or not.

We fade in on an overhead shot above Carmen, tossing and turning in her bed. She awakens, it's dawn. Carmen uneasily and unsteadily arises from her bed, she wipes her forehead, strange, it feels cold. There's red on it.

Carmen looks at her fingers, they're dripping in something red. She gives them a curious sniff...

Blood?

The Latina lands both feet on the floor sprinting to her bathroom nearby with a sense of urgency. She enters, and gasps. Strewn on the floor are the bloodied remains of her old and dear friends: Zack, Ivy, Shadowsan, and Player. Blood is everywhere.

In shock, Carmen feels a presence to her right. She turns, gasping again...

...It's her...

Clad in her old mission ware is a perfect facsimile of Carmen, except she wears a sinister grin. She looks up at Carmen.

"Well, aren't you going to help me with these?" she says in a more gravely voice.

Smash cut to darkness. Carmen awakens from her bed with a start. She's sweating. She leaps from bed and sprints to her bathroom. Nothing. Carmen sighs of relief but looks uneasily at her sweaty and unkempt reflection in the mirror. It was only a dream.

Carmen speaks in a voice over. "That's the third time this month, Dr. Melfi."

We cut to this large circular wooden office that is the perfect stereotypical lair of a psychiatrist. Carmen sits in a nice and comfortable easy lounger. In the middle is a glass coffee table with a box of tissues in the middle with one of those fancy metal tissue box cozies over it. The woman sitting across from Carmen is renown psychiatrist Jennifer Melfi. She wears a gray pantsuit, her hair neat and straight, colored brown, and wearing a pair of glasses. She's around sixty, sixty-five.

Carmen continues describing her dream. "I get up, my fingers are dripping blood. I rush to the bathroom and there she is..."

"Your doppelganger?" Melfi asks in an East Coast accent, most likely Northern New Jersey.

"Yeah. My old friends, the ones I told you about?"

"The brother and sister from Boston, and the other man? Shadow-something?"

"Shadowsan" Carmen clarifies. "Yeah. And my other friend, Player. They're dead—violently dead. I turn to her—me, and she says the same thing she did all the other times: "well, aren't you going to help me with these?", and then-poof, I'm awake. Every time."

"And what do you think that means?" Melfi asks.

Carmen shrugs. "I was kinda hoping you could tell me."

Melfi slightly shakes her head, leaning forward. "Unfortunately it's not that simple. You need to tell me what you think it means and then I'll try and analyze your interpretation."

Carmen looks away. "They make this so much easier on TV shows."

"You're deflecting. Now you've had this dream on multiple occasions, it's not a big nothing, dreams have meaning. Sometimes they're a warning, a-a premonition. Freud says dreams are wishes."

"So, what? I want to brutally murder my most trusted friends, is that it?" Carmen asks, her defenses on full display.

"As I said, it can be a warning. Regrets maybe? You haven't spoken to these friends in quite some time and even though you refuse to go into great detail about your past you've talked to me about how they've all made your life whole. You just said they were your "most trusted" friends."

"I just...I wanted to start over, that's all" Carmen shrugs. "Have someone else fight the good fight."

Melfi sighs heavily, rubbing her temples in professional frustration. "Carmen, I watch the news, I know a thing or two about you, you've spent your entire adult life thus far trying to destroy an international criminal organization when most people your age are just starting their lives. Now, as much as I want to chalk this up to a bout of post-traumatic stress disorder, that would make more sense were you to say someone from said organization was trying to hunt you down for revenge in your dream. But you're claiming this identical facsimile murders your friends and is asking you to clean up the remains while there is blood on your hands."

"So I feel guilty?" Carmen asks.

"Do you feel guilty?" Melfi raises an eyebrow.

Carmen groans. "I-I have nothing to feel guilty about."

Melfi is not convinced, not one bit, but ever the professional she soldiers on. "Then why does she want your help disposing the remains of your friends?"

"Again, I don't know what that or anything in this dream means."

"A doppelganger could be your subconscious telling you of mixed feelings you're harboring about something or more sinisterly, this could be an alternate personality forming" Melfi finally says.

Carmen looks up, taken aback. Her mind begins to drift. Her brief few moments brainwashed as a V.I.L.E. puppet coming back to her. It was understandably something she was trying to forget. But Melfi saw there was something about the way Carmen ducked her analysis.

"I-I don't know. Maybe I'm just dwelling on the past too much"

Again, not convinced, but at least it seemed like Carmen was opening up. "Carmen, if you want me to effectively treat you, you're going to have to be completely honest with me. With doctor/patient confidentiality I have a professional and moral obligation to keep our discussions privileged. Unless a major crime such as murder was on the table...it isn't, right?"

"No, of course not" Carmen insists, very defensive.

Melfi sighs. "We have to stop now."

"Wow, these just fly by" Carmen smirks, happy this painful session was over.

"You are taking your medication, correct?" Melfi asks.

"Never miss a day" Carmen assures her.

"Good, now in addition to the Xanax, I think for the time being I'm going to prescribe you duloxetine, it's sold as Cymbalta. It's an anti-depressant. Now, when taken together, side effects are generally mild but there is an increased risk of isolated dizziness and confusion. If you become too dizzy, just take the Xanax and give me a call" she says, writing the prescription down on her little pad. She tears it off and hands it to Carmen.

"Thanks, Dr. Melfi."

"I can't understand why you come all the way to New Jersey for therapy?"

"You came very highly recommended" Carmen winks.

"Well I appreciate that. If you have any emergencies, you have my number. On that note, I'll see you next week."

Smash cut to what looks like the rec room of a cell block in a prison...because that's exactly what it is. A massive prison complex just outside the infamous town of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Among the torn up couches, crappy pool tables, and collect calling payphones sat our favorite feline villainess, eyes glued to the wall mounted TV with the picture quality that screams 1991.

Tigress folded her arms. She wore a bright orange shirt with pants, the shirt she tied up in the front to give it a marginally more fashionable look while she stared blankly at the infomercial for some kind of low-tech kitchen gadgetry that never works.

Nearby swabbing the deck was Coach Brunt in an identical getup except she had no need to even assume what she was wearing was fashionable. She gave an indifferent Tigress the stink-eye...followed by a few obvious throat clears, and then finally:

"Ya just gonna sit there or help me with this?"

"Like I still gotta take orders from you" Tigress deadpanned. "Besides, it's your fault I'm stuck in this rathole. You and the Faculty."

"Actually, it ain't. And while I may no longer have authority over you per-say, I'm still four times your size" Brunt smirks, handing Tigress the mop.

She rolls her eyes and stands, grabbing the swab from Brunt who flops on the couch while Tigress mills about mopping the floor. Another prisoner walks over to the couch to grab the TV remote, Brunt wasn't moved.

"Now I know you weren't about to touch that. My program's about to come on"

Cue intense stare down. The other prisoner tried her best, but Brunt's southern stone face was just too much...and again, she's like Hulk if he were from Texas. The prisoner gulps and leaves, trying to save face.

But she could see the defeat on the blonde's face. "Aw, now why so glum, Tigress?"

"You're kidding, right?"

"It's not the Ritz, but three squares a day, free TV, easy routine."

"You better be getting to something worth my attention."

Emerging from her cell with a yawn was Dr. Bellum who sat next to Brunt. "Is it time for Walker Texas Ranger?" she asked.

"Almost—oh, why don't you let Gloomy-Gus over here on uh...your little revelation" Brunt cryptically explained.

"This outta be good" an unconvinced Tigress sighs.

But Before Bellum could be more cryptic than usual, a burly corrections officer enters the cell block. "Saira Bellum!?"

"That's me."

"Visitor. Chop-chop!" she howled.

"Ooh, goodie, I hope it's my Auntie Bellum, she...always knows how to brighten up my day" Bellum says, moving up her goggles to wink at Brunt who winks back. Bellum smiles following the CO out.

Tigress shakes her head. "She would have an Auntie Bellum."

"I'd be treating her a bit nicer, because if I'm right, that "Auntie Bellum" is giving her way more than kind words and news from the outside world" Brunt says with a chortle.

Tigress raises an eyebrow, her time as a professional criminal told her Brunt wasn't just talking to hear herself talk. "Oh?"

"Oh" Brunt smirks with a nod.

Were inside the visitation room, which is basically one side with visitors and separated by a wall of plexiglass were the side with the prisoners. There was someone wearing a pulled up hoodie on the visitor's side, where Dr. Bellum sat opposite of. They picked up a phone on each end to communicate.

"And how are you doing...Auntie?" Bellum asks.

The person lifts their head up, smirking. It's Le Chevre. "Quite well, actually."

"That is good to hear" she smiles, but looks around, the few CO's aren't paying much attention. "I heard our friend's acquaintance isn't doing so well?"

"You're always telling me never to gamble. Someone really should have given him such advice."

"I certainly hope you two are helping him out?" Bellum asks.

Le Chevre smiles. "Of course, we think his debt will be paid real soon."

Cut to a local bar. A man taps his foot sitting in a corner booth. He's nursing his third Jack and Coke, the two empty glasses next to him with the ice nearly melted. He's got a full head of hair and sounds like your garden variety junkie, wearing coveralls and looks beat and bedraggled as he nervously scans the bar. It's a much older Brandon aka Badger Mayhew with his life...somewhat together.

Suddenly, he turns his head back and the seat in front of him is now occupied. Also in a lackluster disguise is El Topo. "Hola, Badger."

"Antonio" he balks in a light voice. "So like, you got it, or-or-or what?"

"What is the rush. We cannot exchange pleasantries" El Topo shrugs, he then calls to a waitress. "Senorita! Modelo for me and...whatever my "friend" here wants."

"Jack and Coke" Badger says near robotically. "Strong" The waitress then vanishes with their order after grabbing the two empty glasses. His attention turns to El Topo. "Look whatever your definition of friend is, it ain't mine."

"Nevertheless, we still have a transaction to complete."

"Alright now, just so were clear...I do this for you...this one time and that's it. I'm good?"

"As if it never happened" El Topo assures him.

Badger takes a deep and heavy sigh. He downs the rest of his beverage, the finish much stronger than he anticipates and he winces. Then looking away, he nods.

"That is the spirit" Mole Boy smirks. We tilt to under the table, where El Topo hands an envelope to Badger, who reaches under and grabs it.

"Bit heavier than I thought."

"This is such a tall task, I figured you could use some...peace of mind."

Badger raises an eyebrow. He opens up the envelope. He is surprised, there is a small trinket thing in a little baggie, but more to his befuddlement, were a couple stacks of cash. "B-but I don't understand. I-I-I like owe you money."

"Trust me, Badger, the outcome of this endeavor is worth every penny" El Topo smirks. "This is also to ensure it gets your...full and undivided attention."

"Just explain to me one more time. I-I-I'm just the linen driver, a teamster. I like barely spend ten minutes in the jail."

"All you have to do is slip that bag with the device into your next linen delivery tonight, make sure you mark the bag with a C.S. Then slip it into the hamper per your usual and be on your merry way."

"That's all?" Badger asks.

"That's all.

"People aren't going to get hurt, are they?"

"I'm not going to lie, Badger, but I cannot promise that. You must understand, your options are quite limited should you refuse."

Badger mulls this over for a fleeting moment, but then looks at El Topo, who clearly was not joking. Badger sighs, but nods, conveniently as their drinks make it to the table.

"Alrighty, Modelo, and a Jack & Coke" she says, opening up the bottle for El Topo before disappearing again. El Topo holds up his beer.

"To our health, amigo. And for the bright future that lies ahead"

"Here-here."

"Salud" they clank glasses.

As they do we pan a few booths down. A woman sits alone as the waitress walks over with a- "Moscow Mule."

"Thanks" the woman says in a gruff voice. "Hey, can I smoke in here?" The waitress holds up a finger and walks away, returning wordlessly with an ash tray. "You're the best" the woman nods as the waitress again walks away.

The woman is in her late twenties. She sports a blonde feminine pixie cut, but looks fairly muscular. She wears the jacket of a fighter pilot, with a patch for the A-10 Thunderbolt visible on the front. The sewn in name on the patch to the right side of the zipper reads: LTJG. SLADE. The woman reaches for a half smoked pack of Camel Menthol and a lighter. She fishes a cancer stick from the pack and sticks it between her lips, quickly lighting it, and taking a powerful drag.

Her phone vibrates, she takes it out, and sticks two ear buds in her ears. She sees the caller ID. PLAYER. Rolling her eyes, she answers. "Hey squirt."

"What's that noise?" came the voice of our favorite hacker prodigy...but who is this woman, and why does she know Player?

"I'm in a bar, being depressed. How's college?"

"Having a blast, but uh, I intercepted some V.I.L.E. chatter. A few agents were spotted near Johannesburg."

"That sounds like an A.C.M.E. problem. Let me know when you got anything good. V.I.L.E. has about the same reach as a platoon of kindergartners."

"I'm tracking your position, Maddie. If you don't care so much then why are you at a bar like two kilometers from the same two prisons most of the V.I.L.E. agents are being housed?"

"Oh, look at you" The woman, Maddie snarls. She swigs back her drink, wincing. "You're a piece of work, Player. You know that?"

"I'm just calling it as I see it. You've been there before. All I'm saying."

Maddie sighs heavily. "I'll take the job but I can't leave until the day after tomorrow. Give me details later" she then disconnected the call, taking another long drag.

We cut to outside the orphanage where Carmen now calls home. She returned from her long trip to therapy which seems not so worth it, but Carmen isn't one not to go the extra mile...or extra plane trip.

She held in her hand a prescription bag, sighing. As she waked through the gate she looked down the road, something was amiss. It was a sporty coupe, something like a Maserati...more importantly in A.C.M.E. blue.

Curious and dejected, Carmen entered the front door with an air of caution. "Mom!?" she called.

"Mija! Estoy en la cocina!" Came a voice unfamiliar to us, but now quite familiar to Carmen.

Carmen tiptoed down the hall and into the large kitchen where many a nights Carmen and the orphans she cared for enjoyed home cooked meals by her mother: Carlotta Valdez.

Carlotta was as you'd expect, older, similar in build and with similar facial features to her daughter.

But what Carmen didn't see was someone sitting at the table with their back to the kitchen entrance. Carlotta handed the person a fresh plate of tamales. "An old friend of yours dropped by" Carlotta explained in English.

The person turned their head, it was Julia Argent, smiling. Carmen winced, she quickly put her hands, and the prescription bag behind her.

"Carmen" Julia happily greeted her old friend.

Carmen was in shock. She hadn't seen Julia...or anyone from her old life in three years...why now? Carmen feigned a smile. "J-Julia. You're here" Carmen sat opposite Julia at the table, keeping the bag out of view.

"How have you been?" Julia asks.

Carmen feels increasingly uneasy. She hadn't seen her, or anyone from her past since V.I.L.E. had been taken down. Sure she did her level best to capture any operatives still out there in the world but she never came in contact with those she once called her friends.

And why you may ask?

Ever since Carmen had her memories replenished she never was quite the same. These nightmares were just the tip of the iceberg of Carmen's current mental state, so bad in fact she felt the need to see a therapist.

And every time she would so much as think of her past, it would trigger something in her mind and make everything fuzzy and strange. Julia being one of Carmen's most trusted confidants certainly wasn't making these feelings any less hazy.

She certainly didn't want Julia to know any of this, and more importantly, didn't want her to know that good old Carmen wasn't doing so great in retirement.

"How have I been?" Carmen retorts.

"I understand it's been sometime since we've seen one another" Julia quips.

Carmen had a feeling this wasn't going to be a social call. A.C.M.E. knew of the orphanage and most likely that Carmen would return there knowing her mother ran the place. Why on Earth would Carmen just get a random visit from Jules out of the blue?

"You're looking well" Julia continues.

"Likewise" Carmen answers.

"So, um—"

"Look, Julia, not that I don't ever enjoy your company but uh, this isn't just going to be you and I catching up, is it?"

"Mija, manners" Carlotta sighs.

"It's alright, I understand" Julia nods. "I do have a reason for visiting I confess—"

"I can already guess what it is, Julia, and no. I'm not interested. It's been a year since I stopped going around as Carmen Sandiego."

"Not as Carmen Sandiego exactly, but as Agent Sandiego perhaps."

"A.C.M.E.?" Carmen raises an eyebrow.

"You have the experience" Carlotta says in the background.

"Not helping" Carmen sighs. "Julia—"

"Please. There have been several escapes, mostly from the male V.I.L.E. operatives. We believe they're starting to rebuild. We could really use your expertise."

Carmen wanted to throw cosh into the wind and join Julia, but she knew she couldn't. Her brain clouded by triggers of her past making her former friend's presence that much more foreboding. Plus, the orphans loved Carmen and she finally had found some semblance of peace as well as just wanting something resembling a normal life.

Thinking of a way to deflect, Carmen spotted something shiny on Julia's finger. "You're married, Julia?"

Julia blushes. "Engaged, actually."

"Anyone I know?" Carmen had a few ideas.

But Julia too learned a thing or two from Carmen. "I might be able to tell you, were you to think of my offer."

Again, tempting, but Carmen knew she didn't want to go back into that life. Though despite the negativity brought by remember her past, there was something repetitive about the regularness of civilian life that was kind of dull. Before Carmen could answer, she looked up and for a fleeting glimpse, there was her doppelganger, smirking and chortling. Carmen did a double-take and she was gone. Julia could see Carmen acting strangely.

"Carmen, are you al—"

"I-I'm sorry, Julia. I can't. I won't. I'm out of the crime-fighting game for good, and trust me, it's for the best."

"But—"

"It's. For. The. Best" Carmen enunciated each word for effect. Julia could sense she was quickly outstaying her welcome.

Cut to the front door moments later. Julia awkwardly walked out while Carmen stood in the doorway.

"I am sorry for being so forward, Carmen."

"Don't worry about it. You just...it's fine. Say hi to Zack and Ivy for me will you?"

"Of course" Julia feigned a smile and was about to turn away but then stopped. She turned back before Carmen could close the door. "Just one thing? Why did you insist on calling me Julia, not Jules?"

Carmen sighed. "I moved on, Julia. So should you" and with that cryptic answer, Carmen closed the door behind her. Julia sniffled, and turned away.

Inside, Carmen turned and saw her mother. Carmen glared briefly before turning to the stairs. Were inside the bathroom. Carmen tears open the bag, spilling both translucent brown medicine bottles fall into her hands. We get two inserts of Carmen opening up the child-proof caps, and then spilling the contents onto her opposing hand. She spills the overflow into the bottles save for the recommended dose and shoves the pills into her mouth before chasing them down with a cup of water next to her.

She looks in the mirror, her mother standing in the bathroom doorway. "What was that about?"

"It's nothing, mom."

"It sounded more than nothing, Mija."

"I just...I just want to move on, finally have the normal life I was robbed of. The life V.I.L.E. stole from me. Lately everything keeps reminding me of all that."

"There's something you are not telling me" Carlotta insisted.

Carmen turned around. Ever since she reconnected with her mother she felt the trust and comfort of a maternal figure she always needed...but even she knew she couldn't admit her thoughts. Even Carmen believed they were crazy. She held back some tears.

"Just adjusting, that's all" Carmen says. "I-I-I-I'll get dinner started. Everyone's probably starving" Carmen walks right past her mother, leaving Carlotta saddened and stunned.

Later that day we cut to the prison laundry, which is definitely about as sweaty and horribly ventilated as you're picturing it to be. A laundry truck pulls up to a garage entryway. Out walks a sweaty and nervous Badger, arguably more nervous than his brush with the law all those years ago. He adjusts his uniform and opens up the back of the truck, revealing stacks of paper wrapped linens. He starts to hand them out as. A horde of prisoners each took a bag of corresponding linens back to their cellblock. Among this sea of orange stood Countess Cleo. She smirks, locking eyes with the sweaty degenerate gambler who just sold his soul to V.I.L.E.

Badger shakes as he pulls out a bag, a large C.S. clearly marked in Sharpie. "Ah, that must be mine" Cleo smiles, taking the bag from Badger, but not without some resistance. We fade in on the C.S. and cut to the cellblock. Cleo has several other bags of linens and has a very despicable grin as she wheels a laundry cart into the cellblock. Each prisoner, many of them former V.I.L.E. operatives break into the bags. The guards were distracted by Brunt "accidentally knocking over the laundry cart.

"Whoops. Clumsy me."

But while everyone was preoccupied with the cleanup, Cleo held the C.S. bag behind her. Bellum grabbed he bag and gently opened it. It was stacks of cleaned jumpsuits, but she reached between each article of perfectly folded clothing, and smiled when her hands found something other than fabric. Bellum pulled it out, it was obviously the baggie with the trinket from earlier. Bellum quickly pocketed it before someone noticed.

A bit later, all the laundry was folded and put away. Bellum smirked as she eyed up something across from the rec room...and old and barely functioning piano. She sauntered over to the weathered seat, taking the baggie from her pocket. Bellum stared at it, smiling. She took the item out of the baggie, a sort of peel-and-stick square with a small raised metal circle protruding in the middle and surrounded by a silicon chip.

Bellum quickly affixed it to underneath the keyboard. "Who wants to hear a serenade? Anyone?"

Tigress was nearby, eyes-a-rolling. "Barf."

Brunt walked over and swatted her in the back of he head. "You'll like this ditty."

"Indeed" Bellum cracks her fingers.

"Know any Beethoven?" Tigress asks sarcastically.

"Actually, I know only one song. Chopin's Waltz. Opus 64, number 2. C-sharp to be precise."

"How specific" Tigress sighs

Bellum began to play the melodic and eerily unsettling classical number on the ancient piano. Tigress turned to Brunt. "And how is this gonna bust us out of here?"

"I never said that" Brunt whispered. "But it WILL get our least favorite sheep back to the flock."

"Wait, what?"

"When we nabbed Sandiego and warped her little mind, Bellum had enough foresight to create a fail-safe" Brunt continued in a low whisper. She was joined by Cleo standing on the other side of Tigress.

"That thing she stuck to the piano is a beacon. It sends a signal directly programmed into Carmen's mind that will compel her to return to the corresponding location" Cleo explained.

"And specifically she'll have no idea why and will just want the music to stop" Brunt continued.

Tigress smirks as they listen in on Bellum's concerto.

"Who smuggled it in?" Tigress whispers

"Her "Auntie Bellum" is really Le Chevre" Cleo explains

"Him and Mole Boy have been working overtime to help put this plan into motion" Brunt adds

"I thought they like, totally off the grid. Went legit or something?" Tigress asks

"Oh please, whether if were on top of the world or not..." Cleo began.

"...No one escapes V.I.L.E. This life is just too good for the usual humdrum" Brunt smirks

We cut to the orphanage. Carmen plays some soccer in the yard with a few of the older kids. The camera spins around her as from her point of view we hear the tune being carried. She pauses, everyone takes notice.

Carmen grabs her head. This isn't merely Chopin's Waltz, this is some serious screeching going on I her head. Carlotta walks outside, concern gripping her face.

"Mija? Are you alright?"

Carmen looks over and sees fleeting images of her doppelganger. She barrels past her mother and heads inside and up to her room. But nothing improves. Carmen hears the word Albuquerque over and over again.

We cut back to the prison rec room. Bellum now has a sizable audience consisting largely of the incarcerated V.I.L.E. operatives: Brunt, Bellum, Cleo, Tigress, Paper Star, Lady Dokuso, Cookie Booker, Flytrap, Mickey the Mechanic, The Driver, Madam Goldlove, and several others.

Back to Carmen, her phone falls out of her pocket as she tries to pick herself up, her hallucinations are crossing over into delusions, her nightmare now on full display in front of her as she tries in vain to shake it off.

"Albuquerque" Carmen huffs. "Why, what's there?"

She sweats. She needs help. Carmen scrolls through her contacts and finds Melfi's number. She stops. Looking up in front of her blocking the bathroom doorway is her doppelganger. Carmen can't shake her this time.

"Albuquerque, huh? Well were I you and unfortunately I am, I'm thinking a nice little trip to break the monotony...after all, you clearly have an interest in getting rid of me, maybe there's something or someone in that town to help you out."

The Doppelganger to Carmen's surprise, puts her hand over the phone. "Probably do you worlds of good more than some shrink" She lifts up a hand like she's going to snap her fingers, and when she does, the music ends, and with that, Carmen's hallucination. She breathes deeply, staring at a suitcase partially sticking out from under her bed. Carmen puts on a brave face and closes her phone.

At the prison Bellum finishes her number and gets a standing ovation from the crowd. They're all smirking, and none of the corrections officers can tell why, but one thing's for sure, things are gonna get a lot more interesting in the ABQ real soon.

**Author's Note:**

> Do leave a comment and if you would like to create your own V.I.L.E. operative for this story, let me know, they may make into the final cut.


End file.
